The applicant herein is the patentee in U.S. Pat. No. 3,820,828, for "Compact Multiple Connector Apparatus for Multiple Channels and Tubes" dated June 28, 1974.
Fluid pressure force (FPF) systems, such as in the automotive field to control air conditioning units and heaters in conjunction with one another, employ multiple tubes to conduct the FPF and combination controller devices to selectively apply the FPF to various components. Ten to twenty tubes may be used and heretofore they have been connected to the controller devices by inserting nipples on the controllers into the holes in the ends of the tubes. The aperture in the nipple is the size channel required to conduct sufficient FPF in the system. The outside diameter of the nipple is much larger than the internal diameter of the nipple channel. The tube or hose must be of a size to have a hole large enough to receive the O.D. of the nipple. The tube or hose then must have a larger outside diameter to give the tube or hose sufficient wall thickness to provide sufficient strength to sealably engage the nipple. Also there must be relatively wide spacing between the tubes to insure that the tubes are sealed off relative to one another. Thus the number of hoses or tubes and their relatively large outside diameters, the space needed to force them on the nipples, and the space between tubes requires a large area compared to the size of the channel itself. Thus the size of the controller body is large, the space between the channels is large, and the hoses or tubes are large. Attempts have been made to reduce the O.D. of the nipples, but this leaves the nipples too structurally weak to support the hoses or tubes and the nipples break off. Also the size of the nipple apertures have been reduced and this reduces channel size and makes molding the nipple apertures even more difficult as spring-wires are required in the molds or dies and they flex about creating inaccuracies and scrap parts and the wires break off allowing nipples to be molded without apertures. Thus the prior art has a long-felt want for tube and channel connectors and sealing means which provide small bodies having close spaced channels sealably connected to tubes of small outside diameter wherein the tubes are not subjected to rupturing forces.
The prior art devices thus are complicated in design and structure; expensive to manufacture; difficult to install, replace, and repair; and are undesirably large in hose or tube size and in part size.
In an effort to reduce part size, the latest prior art devices which connect large numbers of tubes, such as 10 to 20, employ stepped, radially staggered, and axially banked connectors expending side-wise outwardly from the adjacent surface of the part. These connectors pyramid the tubes toward the surface from a wide-spaced arrangement remote from the surface. These connectors are confusing, cumbersome, expensive, and time-consuming to manufacture, install, and repair and objectionally faulty in use. Also they do not adequately reduce the part size.